


Into the Sun

by doridoripawaa



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, edelgard deserves to be happy, subtle doropetra, subtle edeleth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24861991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doridoripawaa/pseuds/doridoripawaa
Summary: Edelgard's birthday has rolled around once again. Is her life really worth celebrating? AKA Edelgard muses on her birthday.
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault/Petra Macneary, Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Into the Sun

The Summer Solstice was the longest day of the year.

_"How blessed you are to be born so close to the summer solstice! This child will have a wonderful life, full of laughter and light."_

_"A summer child should always have a smile upon her face!"_

_"The sun is on her side. What a lucky princess."_

Why, then, did Edelgard spend so much of her life in the darkness?

* * *

The 22nd day of the Garland Moon had rolled around once again.

Edelgard groaned softly as she began to stir. She reached out blindly beside her on the bed, hoping to grasp the familiar warmth of her wife. Her warmth, her muscles, her scars, her hair. However, Edelgard merely found herself grasping desperately at air. "Byleth," she mumbled. "Byleth?" Slowly she blinked open her eyes, only to find that her wife was, as a matter of fact, already up and out of bed. The Emperor sighed softly and began to pull herself upright into a seated position. Carefully she shifted onto her knees and reached for the familiar curtain shades behind her bed.

Except, this was not her bed.

Dazed in her still half-asleep stupor, Edelgard's gaze flickered around the room as she tried to gather her bearings. This was not the Imperial Bedroom. This was not any room in Enbarr with which she was familiar. "Where...?"

"El!"

The sudden cry, bursting forth from the darkness of the unfamiliar room, nearly made Edelgard jump out of her skin. She jolted upright to attention immediately, leaping onto her feet faster than an eagle would rise to the sky. "B-b-Byleth?" she stammered, and her heart rate began to slow down to a normal pace again once she processed whose voice had just come bellowing forth.

"You're awake!" Byleth exclaimed, and she eagerly ran over to the nearest window to pull back the curtains.

Was she simply ignoring Edelgard's fright, or had she genuinely not noticed? The Emperor raised her hands to shield her face as sharp sunlight came slicing into the dim room. "My teacher, you seem awfully... cheerful this morning," she commented casually. Once her eyes began to adjust to the brightness, Edelgard noticed that Byleth's hair was dripping and she had a fishing pole strapped to her back. "Fishing this early?" Edelgard guessed, and she allowed herself to crack a small smile. "I can't say that's unusual for you, but you seem especially excited this morning."

"Why wouldn't I be?" Byleth asked bluntly, and Edelgard allowed her smile to grow a little wider. Byleth had become far more expressive ever since the pair of them had eliminated Rhea, but at her core, Byleth was still a very simple, matter-of-fact, and genuine person. A bit of an enigma, but undoubtedly the most honest, forthright, and caring individual that Edelgard had ever met. "Morning is the best time for fishing, before the weather gets too hot," she explained as she carefully placed her fishing rod in the corner. "I swear that I saw a shark, but unfortunately it was not at all enticed by my bait." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe the fish in Brigid have different tastes?"

 _"Brigid?"_ Edelgard echoed. The gears in her head finally began to run again, shaking off the cobwebs of her slumber. How could she have forgotten? The pair of them had come to Brigid, invited by Queen Petra herself. Petra had insisted that they come to visit during the Garland Moon, when the sun shone all day and the waters were the warmest.

_"Summer in Fodlan is not summer," Petra had told them. "I am liking the Fodlan summer, but I am loving the Brigid summer the mostest. You must come to Brigid beaches and be feeling the sand under your toes and the wind in your hair."_

_"And don't you dare make any excuses about being too busy!" Dorothea had piped in. "Would Adrestia truly fall apart if you left affairs to Ferdie and Hubie for one day?" She had paused, as if she had only just registered what she had said. "Well, that's why Hubie is there, anyway! Take a breather! You work alllll the time, and that is not good for your body, your mind, or your skin! Plus, you have the perfect reason to come during the Garland Moon."_

"Hello? Edelgard? Your Majesty? My heart? You know, today is..."

Edelgard let out a startled yelp as her eyes came back into focus to see Byleth's face merely centimeters away from her own. She was staring directly into Byleth's big blue eyes, glazed over with concern. "I... My apologies, my teacher," she murmured. "Actually, come here."

"I am here," Byleth stated flatly.

"I... on your knees!" Edelgard stammered, hoping the light in the room was still dim enough that her wife would not notice how violently red her cheeks were. Byleth obeyed wordlessly, lowering herself onto her knees and then staring up at Edelgard like a puppy who was awaiting a treat for obeying a command. "Good," she mumbled. "Prof- Byleth," she began, "I am grateful for your enthusiasm today, but... I struggle to celebrate this day." Byleth tilted her head to the side, looking genuinely perplexed. "I continue to live while so many others have fallen. So many people who were far worthier of living a long, fulfilling, peaceful life. Every second that I continue to live came at the expense of another drop of blood. Why should I..." She trailed off, unsure of how to continue. After seeing Byleth's energy, her warmth, her radiance this morning, excited to gush about fish and Brigid and beaches and her wife's birthday, how could Edelgard bear to tear her down like this? _'I'm disgusting,'_ she thought. _'A hegemonic beast.'_

As if she didn't already know that.

The sudden sensation of soft, warm skin beneath her palm seemed determined to convince Edelgard otherwise. To convince her that she could feel. To convince her that she was human. Edelgard was taken somewhat aback by the sight of Byleth rubbing her face up against the Emperor's hand. "My flame," Byleth whispered. "Those people would never have been able to live a peaceful life without you. You are the one who fixed Fodlan."

Edelgard tucked a white strand of hair behind her ear, avoiding Byleth's sweet, sympathetic cerulean gaze. "At what cost?"

"Apparently, at the cost of missing your own birthday celebration. I don't even know my birthday, so I have to celebrate yours with extra vivacity." The conviction in Byleth's voice sent a pang directly into Edelgard's heart. How selfish of her to mourn her birthday, when her wife didn't even have a similar day to celebrate.

"Thank you."

"What for?" Byleth asked. She turned so that her head was now lying in Edelgard's lap.

"For reminding me that I am human," Edelgard murmured softly, and she began to run her hands through Byleth's mangled, damp blue hair.

"That's my line," Byleth pointed out, and she seemed pleased when Edelgard cracked another small smile. "Come on now, El," she whispered, and she reached up to cup her wife's face in her hands. "Let's go before Dorothea sets a Meteor out on us."

* * *

Summer child. Summer child. Summer child.

If Edelgard was supposed to be blessed by the sun, then why could she hardly see in this harsh light?

The Emperor pulled down on the brim of her straw hat as she stepped out tentatively onto the beach. Byleth held firmly onto her hand, leading her off of the wooden bridge and onto the powdery white surface that awaited them. However, as soon as Byleth reached the sand, her grip slackened.

"Go on," Edelgard murmured, chuckling softly. "I can tell you're excited." Byleth hesitated, her eyes shifting back and forth between her wife and the sea. "I'll catch up," she reassured her, and with the Emperor's blessing, Byleth took off at full speed towards the ocean, with Petra in hot pursuit.

"You must be protecting your skin!" Petra cried. "To you, Brigid sun too strong!"

"Oh, that professor of ours seems so wise sometimes," a sly voice uttered behind her, "but at other times, she truly seems to be a child."

"Well, that's what happens when you have your childhood taken away. She grew up as a mercenary, after all," Edelgard pointed out, watching as the specks of sapphire and magenta hair grew smaller and smaller.

"I think we all know a thing or two about losing our childhood, Edie," Dorothea countered. There was no malice in her voice, but the edge to it did cause Edelgard to flush slightly. "But you do make a point. I feel like a teenager again when I'm with Petra," she mused, and her lips stretched into a cheeky smile. "You, however, stay just as uptight as ever! You haven't even taken that shawl off."

"... I like the shawl," Edelgard muttered. Her cheeks grew hot, and she couldn't help but wonder if the Brigid sun was already affecting her.

White skin. White hair. She was not much of a summer child.

"Ohh, but I spent so much time picking out this swimsuit for you," Dorothea wailed. She pulled her sunglasses down from the crown of her curly, brown locks and onto her slender nose. "Come on, I even resisted the urge to put you in a bikini!"

"I would've had your head if you put me in a bikini," Edelgard hissed in a soft voice.

"Oh, you know that's not true!" Dorothea laughed. "You would've had some of Byleth's h-"

"We are in _public_ , Dorothea!" Edelgard blurted out immediately, cutting off her friend in her tracks. 

A soft breeze fluttered past them, and the white-haired woman reached up to pull on her sunhat once again.

"Let's at least walk towards the sea, so you can dip your toes in," Dorothea suggested. She gently reached out to cup the Emperor's hand in her own. "I was scared the first time I saw the ocean, too. I couldn't swim. I grew up on the streets, after all," she pointed out. "But I think your fear of swimming isn't the only thing that's bothering you."

"Dorothea," Edelgard began, and the brunette stopped walking. She tossed her head over her shoulder to look at the Emperor, her emerald eyes glittering with curiosity. "You were born on the 29th of the Horsebow Moon. Your hair shines like fallen leaves in the sunlight, and your heart is warm like a cup of tea as the season begins to change. You are an autumn child." Dorothea nodded slowly, as if trying to follow along. "Likewise, Petra's birthday is the 7th of the Horsebow Moon. She marks the end of summer and the transition to autumn. Her heart is fierce like the Brigid sun, but her gentleness and compassion also tickle your skin like a refreshing breeze that marks the coming of autumn." Edelgard could tell that she was beginning to lose Dorothea, but she pressed onward. "My birthday is-"

"Today," Dorothea interrupted her. "So you should have some fun!"

"As I was saying, as the Emperor of all of Fodlan," Edelgard went on, narrowing her eyes in a warning, "My birthday is the 22nd of the Garland Moon. I am born right after the summer solstice. Yet the sun hurts my eyes, my skin and hair are as white as snow, my heart is as cold as ice, my history is marked by cold and isolation, and my scars... they're hardly becoming for a sweet summer child."

"Are you trying to convince me of something, or are you trying to convince yourself?" Dorothea asked. "If anything, your past means that you have a _lot_ of summer to catch up on. For all of those years of struggling, of turmoil, of darkness, of seemingly eternal winter, don't you think the time has come for the sun? That's why I always wanted to marry rich. I wanted luxury to make up for all my days of suffering. But the sunlight I found," she murmured, turning to gaze at the mocha-skinned woman who was splashing around in the crystalline waves, "was brighter than I ever imagined."

"I don't think I could ever get accustomed to Brigid sunlight," Edelgard muttered. "However, I... am willing to concede that you may have a point."

"Here you are, saying your destiny is to suffer, and you're the woman who singlehandedly turned her destiny around! Turned all of Fodlan's fate around! You've shown that when you set your mind to something, you can achieve it." Dorothea whirled around in full, and she grasped both of Edelgard's hands in her own. "Choose to be happy. Take the path to happiness."

_A blessed summer child._

Maybe Edelgard wasn't blessed. Maybe she was cursed. Who was she to listen to the whims of the gods, though?

"I am Emperor Edelgard von Hresvelg," she announced, and her booming voice caused Dorothea to take a step back. "Born underneath the guidance of the sun, I am the Flame Emperor." She carefully began to unwrap her black shawl, revealing a rose-patterned one piece underneath. Reds, browns, and pinks criss-crossed her body at odd angles, cutting across her skin like tracks in the snow. A reminder of her darkness. A reminder of how much she had overcome to reach the light. "I can and will walk any path I choose, no matter the cost."

Even a path of blood. Even a path of bones. Even a path of sand.

She reached a thin white hand towards the ocean. Amongst her scars and scabs, her wounds and her worries, a glittering purple gem on her finger reminded her of how much she could achieve. How much she had achieved. The horrors she had endured, and the light that awaited her at the end of the tunnel.

A sudden flash of light nearly blinded her, as a blue head burst forth from the surface of the waves and turned to look in her direction. A similarly scarred, yet sun-kissed and sturdy, arm reached towards her. The smile that beckoned her forth was even more brilliant than the Brigid sun.

"I am the Summer Emperor, and I will prevail."


End file.
